Forest Faerie Apothecary

07/19/2025

06/30/2024

This child will be immortal the way he loves to drink my Elderberry Oxymel syrup straight from the bottle! 🦸🏼‍♂️💪🏻🫐🌺🌿✨️
He has really acquired a taste for it 😆
I think he managed to get his hands on the last bottle of this batch!!!!😲

06/29/2024

👻 Ghost pipe. Nature always seems to provide you with what you need at the time when you slow down and pay attention. Most people who encounter this eerie looking plant in the woods think it is a type of mushroom; but it's actually a rare type of flower that has no chlorophyll and cannot photosyenthesize. Instead; it relies on getting its nutrients from a fungi russula mushroom that in turn lives in association with neighboring trees. Many fungi and trees have a mutually beneficial symbotic relationship with eachother; but ghost pipe is more parasitic in nature. It takes nutrients from the fungi that it receives from the tree; and gives nothing back in return.
It's a perrenial plant, so it will come back the next year if you harvest it correctly by cutting the stems and not pulling it up by the roots. But be considerate because it may possibly be considered "at risk" in some states; although it is not an endangered species.
Traditionally, indigenous cultures have used Ghost Pipe for medicinal purposes. It's known for its pain relieving properties; both physical and emotional; treating seizures, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia and much more.
It's very delicate in nature and its properties quickly dissipate and are best preserved and utilized by quickly making into a tincture, in which it turns a purpleish hue.
I harvested just a few here to experiment with making a fresh tea before bed; which was quite relaxing. More on ghost pipe to come soon!

06/27/2024

Golden Oysters! Picked up a little something to cook for dinner later. Did you know that golden oysters are a non-native species to North America and can very well be considered invasive? It’s native to subtropical hardwood forests of eastern Russia, northern China, and Japan where it has been enjoyed for its delicious taste and bright sunny color. In the 90's it would have been near impossible to find these mushrooms anywhere in America. But around the 2000's it started to become popular in the American market, easy to cultivate and popular at farmers markets. Around 2012 the first recorded sighting of wild golden oysters were reported in America. So just through popular cultivation, this exotic species made its escape into the local ecosystem and became naturalized. They have mostly been observed growing wild in Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
But is it a danger to the ecosystem? The golden oysters’ quick spread suggests that the native decomposers are being outcompeted and displaced. So more research is still needed about this rapidly spreading fungi and it's effects on the ecosystem. So If you see them, don't feel bad about harvesting these tasty invaders; do your part and feast apon them on behalf of the ecosystem!

05/04/2024

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-a-first-an-orangutan-healed-his-own-wound-using-a-known-medicinal-plant-180984285/

The primate named Rakus chewed up yellow root and applied it to an open facial wound, closing the sore within days

02/22/2024

🌺🫐🍯🌿✨️This is a project I have been working on for awhile now; And I am very pleased to be sharing it with you now. It started out with me wanting to figure out how to make a shelf stable elderberry syrup without having to go through the prosses of canning it. Most formulas that I found started out with making an elderberry tincture based with brandy or some other kind of alcohol. but I wasn't really interested in going the alcohol route. Which lead me to research more about oxymels . An oxymel is an herbal medicine preparation that infuses the beneficial properties of herbs and fruits with apple cider vinegar and combines it with raw honey. Even just the benefits of these two ingredients alone are numerous!! Raw honey is known for its antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant properties and more!
Apple cider vinegar can help with stomach issues and can help stabilize blood sugar and blood pressure and so much more too.
I combine this already healthy base with Organic elderberries, rosehips, echinacea, holy basil and hibiscus to help boost your immune system and help you feel your very best as we trudge our way through the rest of this winter. Not only does it taste amazing on its own; but it makes for a very special treat by adding it to water, sparkling water or tea. Highly concentrated; you only really need a small amount about a half teaspoon to a teaspoon a few times a day.

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